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Talking with John Reinhard Dizon

Please give a warm welcome to author John Reinhold Dixon as he sits down with me to answer a few questions and to let us know about his latest release, Nightcrawler.

To
get us started can you tell us a little about what you are working on or have
coming out?

Nightcrawler is about Sabrina Brooks, the heiress of
a chemical manufacturing company turned vigilante. She’s an intelligent,
physically-gifted woman who gave up her hopes of joining the NYPD to keep her
deceased father’s company open. A terrorist group, the Octagon, is planning to
use WMDs against NYC and she feels she has the best chance of stopping them
with her network connections. She also finds that both she and the Octagon have
strong connections to the LGBT community which they end up using against each
other. It’s a high-octane thriller that addresses a number of important social
issues.

If someone hasn't read any of your work,
what book would you recommend that they start with and why?

My novel Generations is my family saga, but the
original publisher got bought out so the project’s up in the air right now. I’d
suggest Tiara - 10th Anniversary Edition as vintage JRD.
It’s all about Northern Ireland (my Mom’s family place of origin), one of my
best female protagonists in Princess Jennifer, one of my best anti-heroes in
Berlin Mansfield. Plus it’s got a classic matchup between the IRA and the UDA
that you may not find elsewhere.

Where do you find the inspirations for your stories?

It usually comes from a fresh
challenge. I had never written a horror novel before, so I took a shot at it
with The
Fury. There’s such a market for it that I went ahead with Wolf
Man, and have Transplant on the way. I’d never
done steampunk before, I didn’t even know what it was. There was a big market
for that, so I went ahead with Stxeamtown. I always wondered why no
one ever attempted a Goldfinger remake,
so I took the basic premise and came up with The Standard. I was
having trouble marketing The Bat because everybody thought it
would be a Batman knockoff---far from
it. At any rate, I knew I would have to do something far and away from ‘the
box’ if I was going to sell a vigilante novel, and it seems Nightcrawler
fit the bill.

Do
you have a book that was easiest to write or one that was the hardest?

I probably did as much research for my novel The
Standard as any of my works, if not more. It was a James Bond-type spy
thriller with the characters working the South Florida area. I had to provide
authentic details about top-dollar hotels, restaurants, cars, clothes, et
cetera, as well as describe the poverty and crime of Liberty City and other
nearby areas. Some days I did more research than writing, but it made for a
solid experience for readers.

What makes your characters so vulnerable
yet strong? Can you describe them to us? What do you do when characters stop
talking to you when writing?

The female
protagonists usually have to put their feminine instincts on the shelf, which
is the hardest thing for a woman to do. The paradox is that it’s what helps
them make the right choices that dictate the course of events in the novels.
Bridgette Celine in The Fury comes across as a bulldyke, but the closer she delves
into her family roots the more fragile she becomes. Sabrina Brooks uses
chemical weapons to avoid physical combat because she knows a man would fight
to the finish before succumbing to a woman. They think she's a man because of
her uniform. When characters start drifting, I normally let them go their way.
Enrique Chupacabra in The Standard was the major
antagonist but somehow got pushed aside by Emiliano Murra. His voice just
wasn’t strong enough as the dialogue progressed.

Has
there been any character that started off as supporting character, but then
developed into a more prominent character?

I would have to say Darko Lucic in Wolf
Man. He started off as your typically flat gumshoe character. As the
story progressed, it became obvious that he was going to be the only one Steve
Lurgan was going to be able to rely on for help. That bumped him up into a foil
position. As the project progressed, I realized it would be wise to leave an
opening in the bag in case the publisher decided to go for a sequel. That all
fell in Lucic’s lap as he ends up with the girl and a return in Wolf
Man II.

What
has been the defining moment in your career that made you think “Yes, I am now
a writer!”?

It had to be when the original edition of Tiara
was released by Publish America. There is nothing like seeing your
first novel published. Unfortunately, they are one of the companies who prey on
that, and it took five books and ten years for me to realize it. I’m now on the
next level with eight books through eight different publishers. Plus I’ve
self-published Tiara - 10th Anniversary Edition, so we’ll see what
rakes in the most money.

What is the last song you've had on repeat?

Sometimes you get hooked on a
theme or concept that your mind associates with a particular project. I would
play Judy Collins’ Both Sides Now after I finished work on my romantic comedy by
the same name, and it would bring a tear to my eye. I’m glad I finally got over
it!

Nightcrawler is about the
exploits of Sabrina Brooks, the heiress to the Brooks Chemical Company. Bree is
trying to pick up the pieces after her father’s death, and is now in a position
to live up to a commitment to use her resources to benefit the oppressed. She
becomes obsessed with the notion of conducting a guerrilla campaign against
drug gangs in New York City, and accesses top-secret archives detailing
Government contracts for developmental research of chemical weapons. She uses
her chemistry wizardry to concoct her own weapons for personal use, and sets
out on a mission to terrorize the top crack gangs in the City.

Teaser Excerpt:

She
took the ten-minute drive to the BCC campus and headed inside to look over some
contracts and proposals. She took the elevator to the second floor and was
surprised to see Jon Aeppli’s office light on in the darkened suite.

“I
really didn’t try and give her much of an explanation,” Jon’s pale blue eyes
bored into hers. “That friend of yours really made an impact tonight, didn’t
he?”

“Who
was that, Hoyt?” she asked weakly, slipping into the armchair in front of Jon’s
desk.

“I
take it you haven’t seen the news or gotten on the Internet.”

“Well,
not really.”

“That
Nightcrawler friend of yours attacked a man in his own home with a chemical
weapon a few hours ago,” Jon was nettled. “The man happened to be a distant
relative of the Mayor’s partner. He’s got the Mayor out for blood. The NYPD has
an all-points alert out for the Nightcrawler. Your guy was crazy enough to
leave a handwritten note on the victim’s refrigerator.”

“You
mean the Mayor’s a sissy?” Sabrina was wide-eyed.

“That’s
really not the issue here,” Jon leaned over the desk towards her. “Besides, if
you hadn’t spent so much time partying over the last couple of years instead of
watching the news, you would’ve known that. At any rate, the Mayor’s partner
says his

nephew was gassed
because he was a black man living with a white woman, and the assailant allegedly
told him that when he attacked him. He even said the zero tolerance note was a
warning to blacks who date white women.”

“That
lying dog!” she exploded. “He beat her so bad she was taken to the hospital the
night before! It had nothing to do with race, it was a warning to guys who beat
on women!”

“Now
how would you know that?” Jon said gently.

At
once the tension boiled over, and Sabrina cupped her forehead as she covered
her eyes, weeping softly. Jon got up from his desk and walked around, patting her
shoulder softly.

“It’s
okay, kid,” he consoled her.

“It
happened so fast, he made me so mad, and he was acting like he was going to hit
my friend Rita,” she sobbed as Jon handed her a handkerchief. “He was treating
that little boy so mean, and I knew he had just put that poor girl in the
hospital. I knew I

should’ve never gone
over there, but they didn’t have anyone else and the Pastor couldn’t go. I was
just so upset.”

“Bree,
you’re not telling me you’re the Nightcrawler,” Jon said in disbelief.

“I
didn’t say that,” she sniffed halfheartedly.

“For
crying out loud,” Jon walked over to the plate glass window and stared out
unseeingly at the river. “What on earth have you gotten yourself into?”

About the Author

John Reinhard Dizon was born and raised in the Cobble Hill section
of Brooklyn, NY. He participated in local and high school sports at Bishop
Loughlin MHS, excelling in wrestling, hockey and football. The lead vocalist of
the Spoiler and the Ducky Boys, he was a key figure on the Brooklyn rock scene
during the Punk Revolution of the 70's. Relocating to San Antonio TX in the
80's, he moonlighted as a pro wrestler while working as a legal assistant. He
successfully pursued a BA at UTSA and degrees in Korean martial arts during the
90's. He currently lives in KC MO where he is studying for his MA in English at
UMKC. Mr. Dizon has been writing suspense and thriller works for over
twenty-five years.

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